Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Magic fade as Pacers pull away late

This game was there for the taking for the Magic, but after the Magic pulled within 80-77, IND outscored the Magic 17-6 the rest of the way to send the Magic to their 14th road loss in a row 97-83. The Magic bench, which had been playing so well, was badly outplayed by the Pacers bench, as the IND bench outscored the Magic bench 55-28.

The Pacers had 5 players in double figures, led by Anthony Johnson and Danny Granger, who each scored 21. Three Pacers players off the bench scored in double figures (Granger, David Harrison and Jamaal Tinsley). The Magic had only 2 players in double figures, DHoward (22 pts 11 rebs) and CArroyo (10 pts). Darko had 8 pts and an impressive 5 blocks in 22 minutes.

The Pacers dominated the game statistically. They outscored the Magic 74-70 from the field on 46.7% shooting. The Magic shot 44.3% (35-79). IND went 23-30 from the FT line (76.7%), while the Magic went 13 of 16 (81.2%). IND outrebounded the Magic 43-34. The Magic had 14 TOs to the Pacers 12. The Magic did have 22 assists. The fact that IND had nearly twice as many FT attempts as the Magic really hurt.

The Magic are now one loss away from tying the all-time franchise record for consecutive road losses. Yet another game where the Magic were right there in the fourth quarter, but faded in the end.

5 Comments:

The tale of two teams,one team that ran to get leads,played defense and ran when had the advantage,while putting up 102 pts per in the last two,but tonight we got exactly what i was afraid of,coach hill holding our players back by making them conform to his walk the ball up the court shit,we literally saw no running by the magic,against golden state,dwight was able to get a few finishes at the basket off transition,didnt get any tonight,we barely scored 80 points b/c of his ignorance,its like at home the players run,but time they go on the road,BSH try's to make them play a possession after possession game,i mean the first quarter was boring,REAL BORING,i wish i could put JDavis and BSH together,b/c JDavis had us running all the time,we just didnt play no D,and BSH has us playing good defense,but wont coach his team to run on the road....straight moron! That game was lost by coaching alone,if we run,we blow out the pacers just like we did the last two teams,but when we play a slowed down game possession after possession,we're not playing to our strengths,and BSH doesnt realize that we have some ballers,not structural players,jameer & carlos are so crafty with the ball that they need to be on fast break as much as possible,one way would be letting them run after we get the rebound MORON! Next two games at home,i bet we run more just b/c the players will play for the home crowd in their own building,when we play at home BSH is truely babysitting b/c we could win without him with ease!

The granger situation was just rick carlyle out coaching BSH,granger is a good player,but there's no way he's that effective if we had a coach with a clue,granger was on the court with AJohnson,SJackson,JTinsley & DHarrison,thats four guards and one center,so you would think that coach hill with his first substitution would go with a match-up player,but no,this moron does the complete opposite,the pacers go small,and he chooses to bring in darko,first sub off the bench,which means we just went big,now dwight or darko have to guard a 6ft7 athletic SG/SF who is being smartly played as a PF against us,the pacers ran with that line-up and wind up getting wide open jump shots b/c big men tend to always run under the basket to get position for the defensive rebound,and that left granger alone alot at the top of the key,now if its a real PF playing that position its not so bad for the magic b/c most PF's dont shoot a long distance shot,but granger being out there makes it a high percentage shot for a SF playing the four especially if he's wide open for reason's just explained,the whole way through the second quarter i can remember saying to myself,why isnt coach hill playing a four guard/Forward line-up to match-up,he could have gone with hedo as a PF to match-up,with keyon,carlos,augmon/ariza & darko,that way your still playing your second unit,while matching up at the same time,thats your reason for granger playing well,BSH let him do it with his ignorance,and mediocre coaching talents!

I totally agree that we could have used granger,i wouldnt debate that,but i will say that him having 21 pts and 12rbs as a SF off the bench playing PF is crazy,those are PF/Center numbers,just goes to show what we've always said,BSH is so unknowledgeable that average players tend to have career nights against the magic,b/c we didnt match up,granger had his last night!